Far East Kingdoms

China

Late (Eastern) Zhou Kingdom
(Warring States China)476 - 256 BC

The 'Warring
States' period of Chinese history was triggered in 481 BC by the first
division of the Jin state in the central and northern area of the imperial
domains. The Chinese emperors had long governed a great many tribes and
smaller kingdoms, all vassals, but all struggling against one another for
regional superiority and even against the ruling emperor for dynastic
supremacy (in fact the word for 'king' was the same as the word for
'emperor'). By the beginning of the fifth century BC the authority of the
Middle Zhou
emperors had reached a nadir. They were rapidly becoming little more than
figureheads while the real power lay with the rulers of the various states -
effectively independent kingdoms in their own right - which were often at
war with their peers for supremacy within the empire.

The Eastern Zhou continued to rule a much-reduced territory during the
Late Zhou period in the face of opposition between as many as seven other
kingdoms. The pretence of there being a single Chinese kingdom had ended.
The Zhou king was still regarded as the emperor, at least in official
records, but in all senses other than name alone he was the king of Zhou
only, and nothing more than a figurehead in any other respect. The Late
Zhou are often labelled emperors, if only as a way of ensuring that there
is no break in the line of imperial rulers, but there was no empire to
rule anyway.

The Zhou capital remained at Luoyang at first, but Ka'o Wang provided a
division of Zhou lands which would solidify into two separate states - East
Zhou and West Zhou. Neither territory was very big, reflecting the massive
diminution of Zhou power during this period, but both had capitals, with
Wengchang in the west and Chengzhou and Kung in the east. In the end the
Zhou lost the west to the
Qin and were
bottled up in the east until, in 249 BC, that too fell, ending the dynasty
and leaving the imperial title vacant for almost three decades.

(Additional information from Tsinghua University, from Migration and
Settlement of the Yuezhi-Kushan. Interaction and Interdependence of
Nomadic and Sedentary Societies, Xinru Liu (Journal of World History
12, 2001), from the BBC series, The Story of China, by Michael Wood,
first broadcast between 21 January and 25 February 2016, from The
Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to
221 BC, Michael Loewe, Edward L Shaughnessy (Eds), and from External
Link:
Zhou Genealogy (Warring States Period).)

Born around this date is Mo Di, popularly known as Mozi. He becomes a
philosopher during the 'Hundred Schools of Thought period in
'Warring States'
China later in the fifth century (he dies around 391 BC). Periods of deep
instability in societies often result in a flourishing of monastic or
philosophical thought (sixth century AD
Britain
is no different), and China's Hundred Schools of Thought period is seen
as a golden age of philosophy for the country. The movement is built in
no small part on the back of the work carried out by Confucius.

The Late Zhou period also heralded the 'Warring States
Era' which saw almost three centuries of bitter rivalry
and warfare between a mass of fractured Chinese kingdoms
(click on map to show full sized)

469 BC

Confucius dies having so far failed in his mission to bring virtuousness
to the country's rulers and moral values to the method of their rule. It
would be too early for him to see any sign of the growing philosophical
movement that has been inspired by his work. The warring states continue
to fight until well after the last of the Zhou have fallen, but the ideas
that Confucius leaves behind are taken up by his disciples and eventually
reach a much wider audience.

468 - 441 BC

Chêng-ting
Wang / Zhending Wang

Son.

441 BC

Ai Wang

Son. Killed by Si
after 3 months on the throne.

441 BC

Si Wang

Brother. Killed
by K'ao after 5 months on the throne.

440 - 426 BC

K'ao Wang

Brother.

During his reign K'ao Wang gives his younger brother, Xīzhōu
Jī Huán-gōng, the town of Henan in the western section of the
remaining imperial territory. With the title 'Duke of West Zhou', the
territory is governed as a feudal fief, but the creation of a recognised
division of Zhou lands has lain the seeds of further Zhou disintegration.
It is the duke's great-grandson who becomes the first duke of East Zhou,
removing the remaining Zhou territory from the emperor's control other
than the capital itself.

425 - 402 BC

Wei-lieh Wang /
Weillie Wang

Son.

403 BC

The
three Jin states which had triggered the
'Warring States'
period in the first place - Han, Wei, and Zhao - are officially recognised
by Weillie Wang. The act effectively provides a closing bookend to the
long-running 'Partion of Jin'. He organises them into feudal states so
that they can act as a buffer between the core Zhou lands and the
increasingly belligerent and independent-minded
Qin -
although at the moment the Qin technically remain an imperial subject.
Unfortunately, all of the states are given a push by this act towards
establishing themselves as kingdoms in their own right.

The frequent fighting by the kingdoms of the 'Warring States'
period could be contrasted with contemporary Rome's emergence
as a republic and its conquest of the Etruscans and then the
Carthaginians

401 - 376 BC

An Wang

Son.

c.400 BC

The
core Eastern Zhou lands are divided into two states - East Zhou and West
Zhou - and are largely under the control of rival warlords with the Zhou
themselves being protected due to their status but effectively powerless in
terms of playing any real role in how events unfold. The West Zhou capital
is established at Wangcheng, while the East Zhou capital is at Chengzhou
with another important centre at Kung. An Wang himself is largely an unknown
figure, as is his son, Lie Wang.

375 - 369 BC

Lieh Wang / Lie
Wang

Son.

368 - 321 BC

Hsien Wang / Xian
Wang

Brother.

325 - 323 BC

The
imperial state has existed for some years as an increasingly meaningless
concept, with the states that form the majority of its territory showing
increasing levels of independence in thought and deed. During this short
period several of their leaders - in Han,
Qin, and
Yang - declare themselves to be kings of their states, no longer recognising
imperial authority even nominally.

320 - 315 BC

Shên-ching Wang /
Shenjing Wang

Son.

316 BC

The
Qin kingdom
conquers the independent Shu state which is located in the modern Sichuan
province. For the first time, this act draws the Sichuan Basin into a China
that has previously been centred along the Yellow River.

314 - 256 BC

Nan Wang

Son. 'King of
Chou/Zhou'. Deposed & executed. Last of the Zhou.

307 BC

In
the first seven years of his reign, Nan Wang has moved his capital into the
duchy of West Zhou. Now
Qin attacks
Han and Chu comes to Han's defence. Zhou is nominally on the side of Qin,
but Nan Wang has to resort to ever more desperate diplomatic intrigues to
avoid being attacked by any of these former vassals.

A modern artist's recreation of Eastern Zhou figures shows the
bodyguard of a lord in the blue and yellow, while next to him
in rather more lowly clothing is an ordinary infantry archer

256 BC

The
Zhou have long since lost any military power, but their political power has
also faded sharply, leaving them as figureheads and bargaining tools. Even
their surviving core territory at the heart of the old Chinese state has
been divided, with the western section more recently providing the
Qin with
their capital. Nan Wang has conducted a political game of survival, playing
his opponents off against each other, and has survived for an astonishing
fifty-nine years as the Eastern Zhou emperor. Now in 256 BC the Qin capture
the city of Chengzhou, ending the Zhou dynasty. Nan Wang is deposed and
executed.

256 - 249 BC

Hui of Zhou / Duke Wen

Duke of East Zhou. Claimant as King Hui, but not
recognised.

249 BC

The
city of Chengzhou has apparently not remained in
Qin hands
since 256 BC as it has since formed the capital of King Hui's East Zhou
kingdom which claims the imperial title. Now the Qin capture the remaining
Zhou territory of East Zhou and the so-called 'King Hui' is executed. The
imperial title remains vacant for almost three decades as the Qin pursue
their war of conquest against the other kingdoms, but it is a Qin king who
will go on to reunify China in 221 BC as Emperor Shi Huangdi of the
Qin dynasty.